


The Seed

by ShinyHalo115



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adam and Eve, Bible, Fiction based on Folklore and Nonfiction, Flash Fiction, Lilith - Freeform, Mythology References, Retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 14:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15607953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinyHalo115/pseuds/ShinyHalo115
Summary: Retelling of the Adam and Eve story.





	The Seed

    In the beginning, the Earth Goddess would join with the Sun God and the Storm God, and the product would be humans, who roamed the land as hunter-gatherers.  The humans believed that they had to give offerings to these three gods, or their kind would be killed upon creation.  But a person named Eve grew resentful of the mandatory offerings, but did not want the human race to die out.

    One day Eve went into the cave, where the Snake Goddess was imprisoned for answers.  The Goddess was considered to be wise and was once the Underworld Goddess, but she was banished and locked-up when she was unseated as the ruler of that world.  Eve searched the cave but didn't find anyone in there.  The only thing she found was a silver box.  Thinking there might be a clue inside, she opened it.  Black smoke came out and took the form of a woman with a snake body instead of legs.

    "Eve", said the Goddess, "you have freed me from my prison, how can I repay you?"

    "Great Goddess,"  Eve said, "is there a way to save humans from being destroyed by the three Ancestor Gods?"

    "Go east of this location to the river that flows from the mountain.  Follow the river up the mountain, and you will see the Magical Tree of Knowledge.  If you eat the fruit, it will give you knowledge of what you want to know, but beware the Fire God," said the Snake Goddess.  "He thinks humans should not use it, and he thinks things that are not true."

    Eve returns home to her partner Adam and told him what happened and together they followed the river until they came across a glowing tree.  When they ate the fruit they became aware that what people assumed was just an odd way animals sometimes greeted each other was actually the way they made tiny versions of their species.

    "Eve," Adam said, "this is a magical fruit that's not going to decay.  If one of the gods finds the eaten fruit they will use their magic to know that it was us, and it's too dangerous to bring them with us."

    "So let's bury them," Eve said.  

    When they returned they explained to everyone the truth about the "greeting" and word spread like fire on how to procreate.

    "That is a very enjoyable activity," said Eve's relative Lilith, "but there must be a way to do it without going through the dangers of childbirth."

    "It is a necessary danger," Adam said, "in order for our tribe to gain ground, men must risk our lives with hunting and war, and women must risk their lives with childbirth."

    But with many years all the tribes became so numerous that the area where they lived ran out of food.

    "Adam," Eve said, "we need to go back to the Magical Tree to learn how to find more food."  So Adam and Eve went back to the tree.  "Look Adam," she said, "there's a tree in the place where we buried what was left of the fruit."

    "Well it's not surprising for a magical tree to do unsuspecting things," Adam said.

    "But what if it is not? Come to think of it, haven't you noticed how young flowers grow next to the dead stalks of a previous flower?" Eve said.

    "So you're saying new plants are created from dead ones?" Adam said.

    "But the fruit we ate wasn't dead, nor is the tree it came from," she said.

    "Well it doesn't matter, we need to get the knowledge we came here for," he said.

    So they each grabbed a fruit and bit into it.  The fruit gave Adam the idea of capturing aurochs and to drink the milk of the females who give birth to calves.  Eve, on the other hand, bit into the fruit- but immediately spat it out because the answer to her question was right in front of her.  It was the seeds!  When a flower starts to die the seeds become hard and eventually falls to the ground.  And they fruit that they buried had the seeds inside.

    So Adam was able to feed the tribe while Eve experimented with plant seeds.  She discovered seeds were more likely to sprout if there were days of rainy weather.  Just like it use to be with humans, plant seeds needed the elements of the Ancestor Gods:  soil, water, and sunlight.  Humans began to settle on one place to look after the crops, and thus the seed of urbanization was placed.

____________

 

    The Earth Goddess was not pleased with what farming and pastoralism was doing to the land.  People became so enamored with farming that they declared certain sections of the land to be theirs, and soon people were fighting over fertile land.  one day the Earth Goddess appeared before Lilith disguised as an old woman, "Excuse me," she said, "but would you like to buy these berries?  It will allow you and your friends to have sex without getting pregnant for the rest of your life."  

    "Are you trying to sell me poison, or just plain berries?" demanded Lilith.

    "No, said the Goddess, I will show you it is safe."  She puts a berry in her mouth while using her magic to take Lilith's concerns away.  So Lilith paid for the berries with some blankets and shared them with other women who did not want children, or more often, did not want anymore children.

    "This is not good," Adam said, "At this rate we are going to eventually die out."

    "But Adam," Eve said, "us humans are definitely not going to die out now."

    "I'm not talking about our species, I'm talking about our tribe.  At this rate the other tribes will overturn us and they will start treating us badly," he said.

    "But even if they did become more numerous than our tribe, it doesn't mean we will be treated badly," she said.

    "You're wrong Eve, and I'm going to the Magical Tree to find a way to stop this."

    So Adam followed the river up the mountain, only to find that the Magical Tree was burning.  "Adam," the voice of the Fire God boomed, " the release of the Snake Goddess and this dangerous berry created by the Earth Goddess will make the universe unstable.  As for your tribe, if you and your descendants only worship me and no other, I will give you and your line my favoritism.  But first you must kill Eve and be with my servant Irata.  Your tribe must mandate that there must be a wall between the feminine and the masculine.  Otherwise humanity will fall apart and your tribe will be marginalized." 

    When Adam returned home he was hoping that by getting Eve to agree with the Fire God's decree he would not have to kill her.  But he ended up killing her anyway because she laughed at the thought of agreeing to that.  Lilith was banished from the tribe and the Earth Goddess was not able to make more magical berries because her influence, and therefore her magic, waned....for now. 

    

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for the story came from the nonfiction book Eve's Seed by Robert McElvaine, although I agree with the author Cynthia Eller that the Agricultural Revolution exacerbated patriarchy, not created it. I also got some ideas from the book When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone, even though I disagree with her view that early civilizations were more matriarchal (see Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory by Cynthia Eller).


End file.
